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What did you think when you were told that Roy was to become embroiled in the Tony saga?
"As an actor or someone who's interested in stories, I just knew it was a great story because there are so many bits to it. Roy cannot lie - he's got a real problem - he just can't cope with anything that's not black and white, that's not nailed down and it bothers him. He can't push it to one side so it will bother him and haunt him. Funnily enough, Tony Gordon has the same traits but in a much more psychopathic, single-minded way. Roy starts to get inside his head and become Tony's conscience because Tony doesn't have one. Roy becomes fascinated by how this guy's mind works, it's almost an academic thing. When Hayley wants to call the police, Roy doesn't want to because he doesn't want them to ruin his fun! Roy becomes obsessed, until he realises they're threatened."
What does Tony do to them?
"Tony Gordon's getting to Roy and Hayley and he becomes much more threatening towards them that they get scared. Tony threatens to 'sort out' Roy, then threatens Hayley. At that point, Roy decides to go to the police. They also decide to get out of the way for a while to be safer. When they return, the police have taken Tony away but unbeknownst to Roy and Hayley, the police don't have enough to hold him so he's been released. Maria finds out that he's suspected of killing Liam and his world starts to unravel."
"It goes back to the bats again. They think Tony's safely locked away and Roy gets a phone call from this chap from the conservation society saying that some pipistrelles have been spotted under these arches near the canal and because it's November, it's unheard of. The guy wants Roy to do half an hour by the canal to keep an eye out and fill out the log. He doesn't want to go because of Hayley but she says it's fine so he reluctantly goes. Unbeknownst to them, Tony Gordon's broken into the cafe because he has a key so he overhears their conversation about the bats so he knows where Roy is. With that, he approaches him by the canal. He has a knife and when Roy asks him about Hayley, he grins and implies that he's done something terrible to her. Roy loses it and really charges at him. They go tumbling around but Tony's younger and fitter and Roy can't swim - he gets him on the edge of the water and Roy says, 'I can't swim', and he says, 'Good', and pushes him in."
What does Tony do when Roy's gone to the canal?
"Tony walks away and leaves Roy to flounder and actually drown because he goes right to the bottom. He watches Roy disappear from the bridge. He goes very calm and walks away. To Tony, it's the end of his problems."
"Yeah, I did most of it. It was cold, it was late at night - 2 o'clock in the morning - it was only chest deep but knee deep in... I don't like to think! It stank and you had to go under the water and let the water settle, then come up. I had to be under for about four or five seconds. It wasn't scary because it's all very controlled and you do it by numbers, you know what's required. You literally get your head down and do it, then it's over. We had to film a bit more because although the real canal is chest deep, the Weatherfield canal is much deeper than that and he sinks to the bottom, so we went to this huge tank up in Fleetwood to do the underwater stuff."
> Click here to read more from David Neilson in Soap Scoop
